Emotions flare over budget problems in Fillmore

Tempers flared Tuesday night during a Fillmore City Council meeting on the proposed budget for the next fiscal year.

The council plans to vote next week on the $25 million budget, about $6 million of it in the general fund. Council members reviewed a few portions of the budget Tuesday and talked about which services and jobs might have to be cut to close a general fund deficit of about $1.6 million.

During the discussion, some long-simmering tensions between Councilman Steve Conaway and other council members boiled over. Conaway, the only council member who has served for more than four years, at one point accused the newer members of squandering the budget surplus the city had five years ago.

The dispute started when Conaway objected to the way City Manager Yvonne Quiring had calculated the city's savings when it uses independent contractors instead of city employees for certain jobs. He said Quiring's figures, which showed a savings of $153,000 this year for using contractors, overstated the difference between contractors and employees.

Councilman Jamey Brooks defended Quiring's work and accused Conaway and the people with whom he served before 2008 of reckless spending.

"That was mismanagement. The money was rolling in, and it was being spent," Brooks said.

"You should pray that you have mismanagement again as it was when this council was turned over in 2008," Conaway said. "You should pray for such mismanagement, as you described it, because this mismanagement, as you called it, has saved your backside."

Conaway later had a heated exchange with Mayor Gayle Washburn about the city's sewage treatment plant. Monthly sewer bills are scheduled to increase to $90.38 from $84.46 under the new budget.

Fillmore residents pay far more than people in other nearby cities, Washburn said, and the city should consider finding a company that can run the sewer plant cheaper than American Water, the current contractor.

Conaway said asking for other bids could constitute a breach of the city's contract with American Water, opening the city to legal penalties.

"That makes no sense," Conaway said. "It's reckless."

But other council members said they would be open to considering other companies and agreed to take the matter up at a future meeting if it didn't constitute a breach of contract.

The budget will be before the council again Tuesday, the last in a series of four meetings on the spending plan. Proposed cuts include fewer police officers on the street, the loss of the city's anti-gang officer and the elimination of all money to enforce building and zoning codes, except in cases of unsafe conditions.

Quiring initially proposed closing the restrooms at city parks, but the council has said it will keep the restrooms open. It is considering hiring the school district or another outside provider to do the work or letting youth sports leagues or other volunteer groups raise the money.